DS Review: Imagine: Master Chef

Don't let the simple (nearly generic) cover for this game fool you. This game is anything but generic! Nor is this a rip-off of Cooking Mama, which surprised me. Which one you'll end up preferring is strictly a matter of taste; if a prefer a game with a storyline (albeit a far-fetched one), this game is for you. If you'd prefer to stick entirely to the cooking, you might want to dust off the old copy of Cooking Mama again.

In Imagine: Master Chef, you play the role of a 12 year old girl named Lisa whose deepest wish is to fulfill her promise to her father that, by the time he comes home from his business trip, she'll be able to skillfully treat him to some home cooking. She confides this wish in her stuffed bunny Hopper, who she soon discovers has been possessed (but not in the bad, demonic sense) by a Moon Angel named Purianne, who intends to stay by her side and offer both encouragement and companionship the whole way. Hopper also uses her magic to bring the rest of Lisa's stuffed animals to life to keep her company as well. (I'm not sure whether to find it sweet, sad, or disturbing that a 12 year old girl is having to resort to her toys for companionship because nobody else will give her the time of day...)

Lisa's mother surprises her with cooking lessons from the world-renowned cook, Rachel Jones (is this supposed to represent Rachel Ray? I bet it is...). She guides you through each cooking lesson, giving specific instructions on how to perform each task at hand. The game was obviously designed for young children with a low tolerance for frustration, as there's no way to actually fail a level. You may get a lower score, but you can't fail. Isn't that half the fun of most games though, the frustration at losing a level and then the thrill you get when you finally pass it? I guess that's just the adult in me talking.

Speaking of the scoring for each dish, even without being able to fail, it STILL manages to frustrate me! It seems to be incredibly difficult to get the top possible score each time. Even if you make the dish look exactly like the example, right down to the garnishes - did I mention you're also graded for your garnishes? - you still won't usually get the full 120 points. I don't quite understand how they calculate the results. You're graded on how well you cook the dish, how it tastes, and the garnishes. You can earn up to 4 stars in each category, and each star is worth 10 points. The top score you can achieve is a 120 (yeah, not even an even 100). I've only managed it a few times, and I think it was luck of the draw. The garnishes are what usually screw me up. At the end of each dish, Rachel announces that it's now time for what you've been waiting for: the serve up. To be honest, I DREAD it because of having to apply those damn garnishes, knowing that no matter how much care I put into it, chances are I'll still only get 3 out of 4 stars for it!

In between the cooking exercises, you'll be able to go on walks around town with Hopper and encounter all sorts of different people. Each one adds its own different dimension of drama to the game, and although none of this is even really necessary, it's still a nice diversion from the cooking so you don't completely burn out on it. Each person you meet will give you a gift at the end of your encounter, which will go towards being able to customize your kitchen by on more piece. Unfortunately, to unlock ALL of these pieces, you must play the game over...and over...and OVER again. It took me 5 times of playing the game, beginning to end, to unlock EVERYTHING. It's immensely frustrating in and of itself, as you have to sit through tons of endless dialogue just to get anywhere. If I could improve upon the game in any one way, creating a faster way to cycle through the dialogue (or skip it completely if you've already finished the game once) would be it. The fact that after the end credits roll each time, Hopper comes back and reminds you you've only unlocked so and so percent of the items doesn't help matters any. (I think she's mocking us on purpose.)

The dialogue, although very cutesy, feels incredibly forced in places. Not exactly like when video game makers take a game that was originally in Japanese and try to transcribe it into English, no no. It's just... I don't quite know how to put into words what I want to explain here. All the "hopping" jokes get old VERY fast ("This is no hopping matter!" "You don't have to be so hopping rude!" etc.). I started to have flashbacks to that old 1980's movie, Santa Claus: The Movie. (You know, the one with Dudley Moore as the elf...) All the painful jokes about needing "elf control" or "elf confidence" and whatnot came flooding back to me. I'm sure the writers felt very clever and witty for this, but....agh. It gets on your nerves after a while (especially when you're playing the game over and over to unlock it all).

I was, however, very pleased with the style of animation in this game! It has that distinctive Japanese cartoon feel to it without being anime, which I found refreshing. (Before you send me hate mail for it, no, I have nothing against anime! I'm actually quite a fan of several shows.) And for being so simplictic, the level of detail the artists used is astounding! Right down to the very color of the tomato seeds. It all looks so simplified at first glance, but upon closer inspection, it's quite impressive that the artists were able to get so much detail in while still maintaining that simplified style. And, of course, I was amused as anything that the dad in the game looks like a Japanese version of George Harrison. ;)

For the many hours of your time (oh yes, there WILL be hours! It logs how much playtime you've spent on the game as well, and I think I ended up with about 27 hours altogether) that you'll spend on this game, the music gets stuck in your head. Badly. HORRIBLY. As I laid in bed, trying to fall asleep, I realized that I couldn't get the songs - and even some of the sound effects - to stop playing on a loop track in my head. After 2 nights of this, I decided it was time to start playing the game with the sound off. You might want to take the same advice if you start to have this problem.

The gameplay itself, although simple, took me a little bit of time to get a feel for the controls for. I often seem to have this problem though, so that might just be me. Once I figured out I was doing, I realized how easy this game actually is. It's more of a game to use for relaxing than for an actual challenge, as there isn't much that's very challenging in this entire game.

When I first began to play, on the first dish in the game, you have to wash your hands before beginning to cook, and you have to wash the dishes after you're done. Now, I groaned at having to do this - thinking this game is going to be almost as much of a hassle as real life cooking - but this is the only round in the whole game where you're required to perform these tasks. Now, for an educational game, I get mixed messages from this. On the one hand, I'm thankful I didn't have to do this before and after every dish. On the other, what kind of example is it to give kids that they only have to wash their hands and the dishes the first time they cook anything, and then never again? I'm glad that the reminder of taking such responsibility is included in the game at all, though.

Speaking of washing the dishes, this is one of the minigames in the game. Yes - Ubisoft has found a way to, at least try to anyway - make washing dishes fun. It's mostly just a race against the clock to see how many dishes you can wash in a set amount of time, but you'd be amazed how even this simple little minigame becomes quickly addictive when you're trying to beat your own score.

There's a cooking quiz minigame which, although it sounds like an easy enough concept, it's a little tricky. I've yet to score 100% yet, and this is with memorizing answers to questions I've gotten incorrect before! This minigame is educational in its approach, teaching little-known food/cooking tidbits.

The memory game Match is exactly what it sounds like. You get a bunch of face-down cards on a table, flip them over one by one, and have to match them up by memory. Simple enough concept for even a young child to play, and enough of a challenge to even keep adults playing it.

Darts sounds easy enough, right? Wrong. Even if you have good aim, it's hard to make the dart necessarily go where you want it to because of these controls. I always end up with at least 3 or 4 darts missing the wheel entirely, and only get a couple hits on the higher points sections of the wheel. It's frustrating, and that creepy puppet doesn't make matters any better. (The frog's almost as bad.)

Puzzlit is harder than it would seem to be. You get about a dozen letter tiles, much like in Scrabble on each round. On the top screen, you'll either get the silhouette of a food or kitchen utensil, or a scrambled image of either that slowly becomes clearer. The quicker you get the word spelled out, the better. You only have a few seconds to get each one though, so be careful!

Lastly, we come to my personal favorite of the minigames: Stackem DX. You take stacks of dishes (you decide how many you can handle in a single trip) and carry them across the kitchen to the sink, where you unload, run back, and grab more. The aim is to get as many dishes to the sink as possible without dropping them, and the catch is that the more plates you carry at a time, the more your stack is going to wobble and threaten to fall, costing you points and precious time. It's a fast game, but I love it.

As an added bonus, you'll find that there are real life recipes for most (if not all) of the dishes featured in this game. Pretty nifty, as I do have to say, this game does tend to inspire one to want to try cooking firsthand!

I'm going to try and not give too much away here, but I will say that the ending of the game made me cry. It's sort of weak, sure, but the first few times playing the game all the way through, even after KNOWING what happens at the end, I wept like a baby. I'm such a sap. This game KNOWS how to tug at the heartstrings. One question though that I noticed was a fairly huge inconsistency with the storyline...All throughout the game, Hopper makes a huge deal out of never being able to show her TRUE self, for she won't be able to return home to the moon afterwards if she does. I will divulge that at the end of the game, she does briefly show herself - is this a self-sabotage? You never find out for sure if she goes back to the moon or not... The wording of the ending leaves it up to debate as to whether she eventually goes back, or if she stays on earth forever. It's all a matter of interpretation.

It also took me until the third playthrough of the game to realize that during the credits of the game, those aren't just any old dishes they're showing as backgrounds while the credits roll - those are the ones I made and decorated! (I'm so slow.) I got a litte bit of a kick out of that once I noticed it.

The game has a very definite heavy Japanese influence to most of the dishes, so a lot of them are made a little differently than what we here in America tend to be used to. Still, I wouldn't be opposed to trying most of them.

Here, to spark your interest (and possibly tease your tastebuds), I'll list off all the dishes that can be made in this game:

Main Dishes:
Sunny Side-Up Eggs
Salisbury Steak
Rice Omelet
Hotcakes
Curry Rice
Spaghetti Carbonara
Japanese Pancake
Macaroni Gratin
Meat and Potato Stew
Spicy Tofu
Cream Stew
Hamburger
Meatloaf
Fried Egg Ricebowl
Spicy Pancake
Japanese Meatloaf
Thin-Sliced Pork Cutlet
Keema Curry
Chicken Doria
Creamy Omelet
Spaghetti Neapolitan

Side Dishes:
Rice
Garlic Toast
Coleslaw
Garlic Toast Caesar Salad
Colorful Salad
Apple Snow
Potato Salad with Broccoli
Cauliflower Curry Salad
Steamed Rice
Egg Fried Rice
Buttered Rice
Fried Chicken
Pizza Margherita
Lotus & Shrimp Potstickers
Banana French Toast
Cabbage Roll with Sausage
Tofu, Chicken, and Egg
Baked Apple
Pumpkin and Pork Stir-Fry
Chicken Nuggets
Tofu and Onion Miso Soup
Consomme
Custard Pudding
Strawberry Yogurt Cream
Corn Soup
Milk Gelatin and Mango
Fried Apple Pie
Exotic Pumpkin Red-Bean Soup
Potstickers
Octopus Tomato Carpaccio
Minestrone
Potato Cream Soup
Cinnamon Lassi
Coffee
Green Tea
Herbal Tea
Tea
Milk
Oolong Tea

Wow, after typing all that up, I'm feeling rather hungry. See you next time! Oh, and:

I rate this game a 7 out of 10 little Hoppers.